Archive for the ‘Wasps’ Category

3 Tips to Avoid Wasps This Summer

As summer arrives, so do the buzzing insects that can put a damper on outdoor activities: wasps. These stinging insects can be a nuisance and potentially dangerous, especially for those who are allergic to their venom. However, with a few simple precautions and proactive measures, you can minimize the chances of encountering wasps and enjoy a wasp-free summer. In this article, we will provide you with three effective tips to avoid wasps this summer.

Understanding Wasp Behavior

Before delving into the prevention and safety measures, it’s essential to understand the behavior of wasps. Wasps are attracted to sugary substances and food scraps, making picnics and outdoor dining areas particularly enticing for them. They are also territorial and can become aggressive if they perceive a threat to their nests. Wasps are known for their distinct yellow and black markings and narrow waists, distinguishing them from other flying insects. By recognizing these characteristics, you can be better prepared to avoid encounters with wasps.

Tips to Prevent Wasp Infestations

Clear Away Food Sources

One of the primary attractions for wasps is food. To minimize the likelihood of wasp infestations in your outdoor spaces, follow these guidelines:

Keep garbage bins tightly sealed to prevent odors from attracting wasps.
Promptly clean up food spills and crumbs, especially during outdoor gatherings.
Avoid leaving sugary drinks or open containers of food unattended.

By removing these food sources, you decrease the chances of wasps being drawn to your outdoor area.

Seal Potential Entry Points

To prevent wasps from building nests in and around your property, it’s crucial to seal any potential entry points:

Inspect your home for cracks, gaps, or holes in the walls, windows, and doors. Seal them using caulk or appropriate sealants.
Install screens on windows and doors to prevent wasps from entering.
Cover vents and chimneys with mesh screens to prevent wasps from nesting inside.

Taking these preventive measures significantly reduces the likelihood of wasp infestations.

Use Wasp Deterrents

There are several natural deterrents that can help keep wasps away from your outdoor spaces:

Planting mint, eucalyptus, or citronella in your garden can discourage wasps due to their strong scents.
Hang a fake wasp nest in your outdoor areas. Wasps are territorial and tend to avoid areas where they believe other wasps already reside.
Consider using wasp-repellent sprays or non-toxic traps strategically placed around your property.

Using these deterrents can create an environment that is less attractive to wasps, thus reducing the chances of encountering them.

Safety Measures When Encountering Wasps

Despite taking preventive measures, there may still be instances when you encounter wasps. Here are some safety measures to follow:

Remain Calm and Still

If a wasp is near you, it’s important to remain calm and still. Sudden movements or panic can provoke them and increase the likelihood of being stung. Stay relaxed and avoid making any threatening gestures towards the wasp.

Avoid Swatting or Aggravating Them

Resist the urge to swat at a wasp or try to shoo it away aggressively. Swatting at a wasp increases the risk of getting stung, as it perceives this action as an attack. Stay still and let the wasp fly away on its own.

Seek Professional Help if Necessary

If you have a severe wasp infestation or are allergic to wasp stings, it’s best to seek professional help. Pest control experts can safely remove nests and provide you with advice on long-term wasp prevention.

By following these three essential tips, you can significantly reduce the chances of encountering wasps this summer. Remember to clear away food sources, seal potential entry points, and use wasp deterrents to create an environment that is less attractive to these stinging insects. If you do encounter wasps, remain calm, avoid swatting, and seek professional help if necessary. Enjoy your summer without the hassle and potential dangers of wasp encounters.

Summer Pest Prevention Tips

The arrival of summer is often greeted with much excitement, as it brings with it vacations, outdoor barbecues, and long, sunny days. However, this season also sees an increase in the activities of pests like mosquitoes, ants, and wasps.

Introduction to Summer Pests

With the rising temperatures, various types of pests become more active and visible. These creatures not only cause discomfort but can also pose health risks and damage property.

Common Types of Summer Pests

There are many pests that become more active in the summer months. These include mosquitoes, which can transmit diseases; ants that invade your kitchen, and wasps that can become aggressive if disturbed.

The Importance of Pest Prevention

When it comes to pests, prevention is always better than cure. This can save you from potential health risks and costly damages to your property.

Health Risks Associated with Pests

Some pests carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Mosquitoes can spread illnesses such as Zika and West Nile Virus, while ticks carry Lyme disease.

Damage to Property

Pests like termites and ants can cause significant damage to your home. They can chew through wood, insulation, and even wiring, leading to costly repairs.

Top Summer Pest Prevention Tips

To keep pests at bay, here are some top prevention tips to follow this summer.

Regular Inspection

Regularly inspect your home for signs of pests. Look for droppings, damaged plants, and chewed wires.

Proper Sanitation

Keep your house clean. Pests are attracted to food and water, so keep these sources sealed and clean up any spills immediately.

Sealing Entry Points

Seal any cracks or holes in your home’s walls, doors, and windows to prevent pests from entering.

Proper Landscape Maintenance

Maintain your landscape properly. Trim bushes and trees that touch your home, as pests can use these as a bridge to enter your house.

Professional Pest Control Services

If the pest infestation is severe, consider hiring professional pest control services. They have the expertise and equipment to effectively and safely remove pests.

Why Prevention is Better Than Cure

Preventing pests from invading your home in the first place is more cost-effective and less stressful than trying to eliminate them after they’ve already caused problems.

When to Call a Professional

If your own prevention efforts aren’t enough, don’t hesitate to call a professional. They can provide a more thorough inspection and treatment to ensure your home is pest-free.

Summer should be a time of enjoyment and relaxation. Don’t let pests ruin this wonderful season. Follow these pest prevention tips to keep your home safe and pest-free.

How To Prevent Wasps From Building Nests On Your Porch?

When the weather is pleasant, we all like to sit on our porch and enjoy some sunshine while taking in the beautiful view of spring flowers blooming. Unfortunately, wasps enjoy the same things as us.

Known for hibernating during winter and thriving during the warmer months, wasps can become quite a nuisance to homeowners. Summer, spring, and autumn are the ideal seasons where wasps can be seen flying around houses. Wasps build delicate yet, large nests and hence are always on the lookout for a strong surface on which they can build their nest. Roofs, eaves, and corners of porches are ideal locations for wasps to build their nests.

How Dangerous are Wasp Nests?

Having a wasp nest on your porch can be dangerous and troubling for you as a homeowner. However, a porch is one of the most favored locations for wasps to build and expand their nest. Wasps like to build their nests in areas where they can have easy access to indoors and outdoors. With their liking for high protein meat products and sugary food, they utilize porches as a gateway to spot and attack human food.

Tips To Prevent Wasp Nests On Your Porch

Do not leave exposed food on your porch: If you have a meal on your porch, clean up right after you finish eating to ensure that there are no scraps or leftovers on the porch. Wasps can find themselves attracted towards such sources of food, in addition to being drawn towards pet food. It may be a good idea to feed your pets indoors unless your pet’s food bowl is clean and empty when left outside. Move your bird feeders from your porch to an open area in your yard so that the porch does not become a central source of food for wasps.
Cover your garbage bags and cans: Wasps don’t just attack cooked and fresh food. They can relish food from waste bags and cans just as much as fresh food. Your garbage cans can become a focal point for wasps if you do not cover them completely. Do not leave bags of trash open, as the sight and smell of food from garbage bags can attract more wasps towards your porch.
Grow wasp-repelling plants: Many plants are believed to act as a repellant for wasps and can be used to keep them away. The smells of certain plants such as basil, mint, and marigold can drive pests away with ease. This may be a better alternative to spraying chemical pesticides on your porch as they generally have an unpleasant odor.
Clean your porch regularly: Since your porch is exposed to a lot of natural elements such as rain, dust, and winds, it may accumulate waste without you realizing it. Small particles of sugar, pollen, or any food may not be visible to you but can be easily detected by a wasp. By regularly sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming your porch, you will be able to avoid attracting wasps and subsequent building of a nest.

Wrapping Up

Even with the best of precautions, you may find yourself in a situation where wasps have managed to build a nest on your porch. In such instances, you must tread delicately and call a professional pest control officer to assess and exterminate the wasps from your property. Trying to remove a wasp nest yourself can lead to the wasps getting agitated and attacking you, leading to severe stinging and pain.

How Wasps Build Nests

There are thousands of wasp species around the world, and not all of them are social insects. Some wasp species will live on their own, and they pose no threat to homeowners. Most of the trouble caused by wasps comes from the social species, which live in large colonies.

Social wasp nests

Different social wasp species will build their nests in different locations. However, these locations do have certain features in common – they are hidden and they are protected from the elements. Some species will build their nests inside tree or rock crevices, while others will build them underground. Some will even use elements of the home as a suitable nesting area, elements such as the eave.

Whatever location they choose, all nests start with a single queen, which emerges out of its winter hibernation in the spring. Like new ant and termite queens, the wasp queen will build the nest by herself at first, and it will use a malleable pulp that it creates out of wood mixed with its own saliva. The queen will then lay eggs in the cells that it created for the nest. These eggs will hatch, and the queen will feed the larvae to maturity. Once the worker wasps are fully grown, they will take over all the duties of maintaining the colony, and the queen will focus on laying eggs for as long as the nest remains active.

The nest will continue growing both in size and numbers from there. Workers will use the same pulp material as the queen, and the complexity and size of the nest will depend on the species that is building them.

Solitary wasp nests

Solitary species on the other hand will mostly build their nests in the ground, or in small holes or crevices that they may have found during their exploration. Most solitary wasp species are not considered pests, but their nests can sometimes be dangerous when they are underground, and you step on them or mow over them.

How to remove a wasp nest

If you spot a wasp nest on your property, it’s important to get it removed as fast as possible. To do this, you will need the help of a pro, since wasps will be extremely aggressive whenever their nests are threatened. Contact us today if you have any questions about wasps or if you have a wasp infestation on your property, and we will gladly help you out.

Which Wasp Species Is Nesting On Your Property?

Summer time means a lot of things, from having fun outside, to having to deal with more insects on your property. One insect species would be particularly unwelcome – the wasps. If you start to notice a lot of wasps in an area, odds are that there is a nest nearby. These nests need to be left alone, because the wasps will swarm to protect them. Here are some of the species that may be nesting on your property:

Paper wasps

Paper wasps will have colonies that are centered around one queen, and this queen will set the tone for behavioral patterns among all the members of the nest. A very hierarchical species, these wasps will build nests that look like upside down umbrellas. These nests are almost always open, and they can become quite large. The nests will be built on single supporting stalks and consist of a paper-like material.

Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets also create their nests from a papery material as well, and these nests have a single opening. Inside the nests, the yellowjackets will create hundreds of tiers of cells, in which they rear their young. This species can also create vast underground nests that become enormous over time.

Mud daubers

You will often notice mud daubers at one of your backyard picnics, or you will hear them buzzing near the outdoor pavilion in the park. The mud wasps however are a peaceful, solitary species, and they build nests in the mud, which have a tubular shape.

Bald-faced hornets

Despite the name, bald-faced hornets are actually a species of wasps, and you can recognize them by the white markings on their head and body. This is a highly territorial wasp species that will sting repeatedly if it feels that its nest is under threat. The nests are made out of wood fibers that are chewed up and mixed with saliva, and they will usually be at least three feet above the ground, where they can grow to the size of a basketball.

Getting rid of wasp nests

Regardless of the species on your property, you do not want to tackle the infestation by yourself. Removing wasp nests without the proper gear, knowledge and products can be very dangerous. If you notice a nest on your property, contact us today, and we will send someone over immediately who will be able to safely remove it for you.